overeign by the simple process of getting hold of the sovereign's
beard and turban, which meant to throw one's complaints on the shame of
his beard, to which he was bound to listen. One day I was going to the
Hum-hum (Turkish bath) when a man and his wife, running fast, rushed
into the bathroom after me, and the husband, having got hold of my beard
from the front, the wife was pulling me at the same time from behind. It
was very painful, as he was pulling my beard rather hard. As there was
no guard or sentry near to deliver me from their hands, I begged them to
leave my beard alone, saying that I could listen without my beard being
pulled, but all in vain. I was rather sorry that I had not adopted the
fashion of the Europeans, whose faces are clean shaven. I ordered that
in future a strong guard should be placed at the door of the Hum-hum."

Some of the ancient faiths regarded the beard as an appendage not to be
touched with the razor, and a modern instance bearing on the old belief
will be read with interest. Mr Edward Vizetelly, in his entertaining
volume "From Cyprus to Zanzibar" (London, 1901), tells some good stories
about the priests in Cyprus. Mr Vizetelly went to the island as soon as
it passed into the hands of the British Government, and remained there a
few years. "On one occasion," he says, "when I happened to be in the
bazaar at Larnaca in the early afternoon, I was amazed to witness all
the shopkeepers, apart from the Maltese, suddenly putting up their
shutters, as if panic-stricken, but without any apparent cause.
Inquiring the reason, it was only vouchsafed to me that someone had
shaved off a priest's beard." The priest had been imprisoned for felling
a tree in his own garden, which was against the laws of the land then in
force. When in gaol the recalcitrant priest had his unclean hair and
beard shorn off, in accordance with the prison regulations. The
authorities were not aware that the hirsute adornments of the Orthodox
Catholic faith were sacred. The act roused the Cyprist ire, and the High
Commissioner had to issue orders that if any priest was locked up in
future his hair and beard were to be left alone.

Respecting the beard are some popular sayings, and we deal with a few as
follows.

A familiar example is "To pull the devil by the beard." When Archbishop
Laud was advised to escape from this country he said, "If I should get
into Holland, I should expose myself to the insults of those sectaries